Will a hard drive immersed in non-conductive fluid or oil work properly?

Adrian Wong · 26th May 2008, 05:53 PM

Karhoe just reminded me about the overclocking tests where the motherboard, CPU, memory modules, graphics card, etc. were all immersed in non-conductive fluid, including oil, to increase thermal dissipation from those components.

He asked me a rather interesting question - can the hard drive be immersed as well? Will such an immersed hard drive work?

Obviously, I don't think so. I have my reasons for that opinion, which I will reveal later. But what do YOU think?

mikegas · 26th May 2008, 06:20 PM

Is this a trick question? No way. Mechanical component, breather hole. Flight dynamics, air pressure .. blah .. the list goes on. Get a SSD drive maybe it would work. Plus, there is no way to overclock a HDD .. is there? Prove me wrong.

zy · 26th May 2008, 06:23 PM

i'm thinking about the breather hole too, fluid might go in and start interfering with the mechanism inside

karhoe · 26th May 2008, 06:32 PM

Haha, I was just asking for fun, I don't think it would work because the oil could slow down the spinning of splatter and movement of the head

Mac Daddy · 26th May 2008, 06:51 PM

No I don't think so any mechanical device with breather holes as mentioned above will work submersed in liquid.

I saw a post a while back in which a system was submersed in liquid but the DVD Rom and HD devices were externally mounted.

Chai · 26th May 2008, 07:14 PM

No way it will work, unless the HDD is air tight, which isn't.

Adrian Wong · 26th May 2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikegas

Is this a trick question? No way. Mechanical component, breather hole. Flight dynamics, air pressure .. blah .. the list goes on. Get a SSD drive maybe it would work. Plus, there is no way to overclock a HDD .. is there? Prove me wrong.

No-no, it's not about overclocking the hard drive. It's just a way for them to radically cool down the hot CPU and graphics card by soaking the whole assembly in a tank filled with non-conductive liquid.

Adrian Wong · 26th May 2008, 07:40 PM

Hehe.. Frankly, I was thinking the same thing. The fluid may be non-conductive but the hard drive isn't completely sealed.

If the fluid is not sufficiently viscous, it can leak past the filter into the drive, disrupt the spinning of the platters and cause the heads to crash.

g0tanks · 26th May 2008, 07:41 PM

No for sure.

Lacus · 26th May 2008, 08:06 PM

This experiment seems familiar..Was it from Tomshardware? I remember them soaking their PC in some sort of oil :S to Oc their system to the MAX (Referring to Maximum..Not Max

)

View Poll Results: Can a hard drive immersed in non-conductive liquid work properly?
Yes, I think it's possible.	5	21.74%
No way! No way in hell it will run.	18	78.26%
I don't really care or wish to guess.	0	0%
Voters: 23. You may not vote on this poll

26th May 2008, 05:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 30,146 Reputation: 3081 Rep Power: 67	Will a hard drive immersed in non-conductive fluid or oil work properly? Karhoe just reminded me about the overclocking tests where the motherboard, CPU, memory modules, graphics card, etc. were all immersed in non-conductive fluid, including oil, to increase thermal dissipation from those components. He asked me a rather interesting question - can the hard drive be immersed as well? Will such an immersed hard drive work? Obviously, I don't think so. I have my reasons for that opinion, which I will reveal later. But what do YOU think? __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? Keep Tech ARP free! Visit our sponsors! We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

26th May 2008, 06:23 PM	#3 (permalink)
zy Dead Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Penang,Malaysia - Buffalo,New York Posts: 12,842 Reputation: 1998 Rep Power: 37	i'm thinking about the breather hole too, fluid might go in and start interfering with the mechanism inside __________________ current: P4-3.2\|P4P800-Deluxe\|512x4-DDR\|NV6600 WD2500KS\|WD5000AAKS\|AD-7191A\|1860NX\|Z2300\|MP470 home (malaysia): P4C-2.6@3.1-StockHSF\|AI7\|256x2-BT-D43\|512x2-DT-D43\|A9600XT-VIVO WD1200JB\|2xWD2500KS\|DRU-800A\|DVD-E616P\|LTR-52327S\|152x\|V.S.4121\|iP1500 laptop: M1210\|T7200\|2GBDDR667\|160GB5K160\|GO7400

26th May 2008, 06:32 PM	#4 (permalink)
karhoe I'm a regular Join Date: 29 Nov 2006 Posts: 314 Reputation: 11 Rep Power: 3	Haha, I was just asking for fun, I don't think it would work because the oil could slow down the spinning of splatter and movement of the head __________________ My Blog

26th May 2008, 06:51 PM	#5 (permalink)
Mac Daddy Pickin' Da Gitfiddle Join Date: 19 Nov 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 2,048 Reputation: 802 Rep Power: 12	No I don't think so any mechanical device with breather holes as mentioned above will work submersed in liquid. I saw a post a while back in which a system was submersed in liquid but the DVD Rom and HD devices were externally mounted. __________________

26th May 2008, 06:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 348 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 3	Is this a trick question? No way. Mechanical component, breather hole. Flight dynamics, air pressure .. blah .. the list goes on. Get a SSD drive maybe it would work. Plus, there is no way to overclock a HDD .. is there? Prove me wrong.

26th May 2008, 07:14 PM	#6 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,760 Reputation: 3984 Rep Power: 72	No way it will work, unless the HDD is air tight, which isn't. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

26th May 2008, 07:40 PM	#8 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 30,146 Reputation: 3081 Rep Power: 67	Hehe.. Frankly, I was thinking the same thing. The fluid may be non-conductive but the hard drive isn't completely sealed. If the fluid is not sufficiently viscous, it can leak past the filter into the drive, disrupt the spinning of the platters and cause the heads to crash. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? Keep Tech ARP free! Visit our sponsors! We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

26th May 2008, 07:41 PM	#9 (permalink)
g0tanks I'm a regular Join Date: 6 May 2008 Posts: 486 Reputation: 116 Rep Power: 2	No for sure. __________________

26th May 2008, 08:06 PM	#10 (permalink)
Lacus Super Active Join Date: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 1,026 Reputation: 166 Rep Power: 3	This experiment seems familiar..Was it from Tomshardware? I remember them soaking their PC in some sort of oil :S to Oc their system to the MAX (Referring to Maximum..Not Max ) __________________ GUNDAM 00[CPU=Intel Celeron Dual Core E1200 (3200Mhz)\| Mobo=Asus Rampage Maximus Formula (Rampage Bios Mod)\| GPU=Gigabyte HD4850 512MB GDDR3+T-Rad2 \| RAM=4x1gb DDR2 800Mhz Corsair XMS2 \| HDD=Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB \| Soundcard=Doom's Creative X-FI XtremeMusic \| Speakers=Creative Inspire P5800 \| PSU=Silverstone Strider ST56F \| Keyboard=Creative Prodikeys DM \| Mouse=Logitech MX518\| Casing=Lian Li PC-7YCF]